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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Anonymous vs The 'Church' of Scientology

Anonymous vs The 'Church' of Scientology

Article includes all the updates, statements, images, and videos by "Anonymous" and the "War on Scientology".

An Internet-based group "Anonymous" has begun what it calls, a "War on Scientology". Anonymous, whose membership includes such groups from sites like Ebaums World, YTMND and *Chan, have begun a "third wave" of attacks in the week-old operation dubbed “Project Chanology”. They have been releasing statements on YouTube and via a press release, outlining their plans and intentions for Scientology. The main reasons behind Anonymous's attack on Scientology are said to be the removal of the Tom Cruise video from the Internet last week by Scientology lawyers and also Scientology's strong position against free speech.

Church of Scientology related websites, such as religousfreedomwatch.org have become unable to view due to a suspected DDoS Attack by the group. This same group allegedly brought down Scientology 's main website, scientology.org, which has been available sporadically since the beginning of the attack. Scientology's websites first began showing signs of the DOS attack by "Anonymous" sometime around the end of last week.

Several websites relating to the Church of Scientology have been slowed down, brought to a complete halt or seemingly removed from the Internet completely in an attack which seems to be continuous. The scientology.org site was back online briefly on Monday (1/21/08), but since then has been inaccessible.

The group has released a video titled: "Message to Scientology" on YouTube concerning their intentions to attack the Church of Scientology. A robotic voice on the video begins with "Hello leaders of Scientology. We are Anonymous," and continues by explaining their motivations: "Over the years we have been watching you, your campaigns of misinformation, your suppression of dissent and your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed." The message goes on to state that the group intends to "expel Scientology from the Internet". This is a view echoed on the so-called "Project Chanology" website, an open source of information and direction for those within Anonymous, which talks of tactics such as blackfaxing and prank calling alongside other "real-life" methods of attack.

"Anonymous" released a statement on Monday (1/21/08) in the form of a press release, "Internet Group Anonymous Declares "War on Scientology": "Anonymous" are fighting the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center". In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech "A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents." The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group "will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy".

The attack was reportedly motivated by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise, which is called the Tom Cruise video, from YouTube. After the Church of Scientology lodged a copyright infringement complaint with YouTube, the site took down the video. The Tom Cruise video is still available on Gawker.com , which has stated it will not remove the video "It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."

Gawker.com discussed the actions of the "Anonymous" group, in a post on Monday titled "Scientology vs. the Internet: Why Kids On The Internet Are Scientology's Most Powerful Enemy". Gawker.com briefly outlined actions of other anonymous users critical of Scientology, including actions taken in the past by users of YouTube, Digg, and YTMND "This isn't the only group of Internet users unafraid of the intimidating cult; a whole range of sites has turned the Church into a mockery by doing what mainstream celebrity-coverage outlets wouldn't dare."

A poster on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) was critical of the actions by the "Anonymous" group. In a post titled "Open Letter to Anonymous" a frequent poster to a.r.s., "cultxpt", wrote that "It's understandable that people get upset over the things the Church of Scientology has done online and off". He wrote that the Church of Scientology "tried to shut down a.r.s.," and "spam our newsgroup to this day". The spam reference made by cultxpt refers to "sporgery", a form of nonsensical spam tactic used as an attempt to disrupt discussion on the newsgroup.

The post from cultxpt went on to criticize the actions of the "Anonymous" group, stating: "We're supposed to be the good people," and stated that contrary to the Anonymous group's tactics, "Our weapons as critics are reason, evidence, argument, and free speech".

On Tuesday (1/22/08), the founder of Operation Clambake or Xenu.net, a non-profit organization and website critical of Scientology based in Stavanger, Norway , released a statement about the attacks by "Anonymous". Andreas Heldal-Lund was critical of the "Anonymous" groups actions, stating: "The author of Operation Clambake does not condone such activity. Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card. They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy." Heldal-Lund went on to emphasize the right of all people and organizations to freedom of speech - including the Church of Scientology: "Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organization and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion."